In June 2024, the Department of Justice issued a damning 126-page detailed report outlining the Phoenix Police Department’s pervasive constitutional abuses, including against unhoused people. Per the DOJ, Phoenix police regularly stopped homeless people with no justification, aggressively cited them for trespassing and regularly destroyed their belongings with no due process.
“Banishing homeless people from public spaces by unlawful means, destroying their property, and cycling them through the criminal justice system does not solve the problem or address its root causes,” the DOJ report read. “And in Phoenix, it has led to a pattern of constitutional violations.”
Now, with a draft policy currently up for public input through Dec. 13, Phoenix police appear to be addressing those serious criticisms. The document, dubbed the “Interacting with Individuals Experiencing Homelessness” policy, lays out how police officers should conduct themselves when dealing with unhoused people. As with the police department’s new “Youth Interactions” policy, which it released last month, Phoenix police did not have a preexisting homelessness policy, according to police spokesperson Sgt. Brian Bower…